Windows 10: 'Restore Down' file icon upper right function?

Hello,

I just purchased a new desktop Acer Aspire that has win10 home 64 on it that I have been setting up.
I've installed our copy of Office Professional Plus 2016 on it as well.

I also have a 2 year old Acer laptop that also has win10 home 64 and it has Office Professional Plus 2016 on it. Same version and build number.

The new desktop seems to be running well except for one thing.
On the desktop the window size icon, upper right of screen (looks like two file folders, and is between the - (minimize) and the x (close) icons) has a different function then what I'm used to.

On my old desktop and my current laptop, clicking that icon reduces the size of the current window allowing one to manipulate windows side-by-side and other configurations.

On my new desktop clicking that icon causes something that is apparently called 'Restore Down'. At least that is what it says when mousing over that icon. It opens a window about 2" wide by 3" tall and starts flashing what looks like a file list rapidly paging down or something. It will not allow me to expand that window to a larger size.

Note: this icon function is consistent across Outlook, File manager, Excel, Word, and Firefox. (didn't check the other office products)

What is Restore Down?

How can I change the function of that icon back to what it used to do, reducing the size of the current window?

Thanks

:)

 

Up down left right arrows

Hi Laura,.

I suggest you to check if the following steps helps to resolve the issue.

• Right click on the Windows key and Go to control panel.
• On the upper right corner change the view by to small icon.
• Click on mouse.
• Then click on ‘wheel’ tab.
• Set the values for horizontal and vertical scrolling.

and see if it helps to resolve the issue.

Thank you.

 

Icon text on the right side

Hi,

To address your concern, we suggest that you restore the desktop icons. To do this,

• Right click anywhere on the desktop.
• Click on View
• Click on any of the available options (i.e. Small Icons)

Let us know if you need further assistance.

 

File icons look like blank pages with flipped upper right corner

Prologue (you don't need to read this, but why not, right?):

I recently installed the free version of SUPER(R) by erightsoft. This is a wonderful piece of software, but downloading the free version is ... ill-advised, to say the least. Just conduct an internet search for e.g. "super erightsoft malware crap ****
kill" and you will see what I mean. I trusted the download, since I had downloaded the app multiple times in the past and it had never been a problem. In short: it was a bad decision and it resulted in me almost killing my machine. Let's not talk about that
any more. The harm is done and there is no going back, so let's all face the future, will we now!

(ah, good, the bad words were already changed. Sorry about that, editor. I didn't realize while writing... ;D)

The really **** up thing I did:

During uninstallation of e-rightsoft's SUPER, which installed a lot of crap-ware, I most probably deleted some files and directories needed by Windows. I went into "C:\Program Files" and (brute forcedly) deleted directories with really cryptic names like
"fcsQvbsZEjIuBrfJEsYAhmSzNiAhvq" or "7V3EHddOb6tV04at6rWXWXcfjLMcp9wLp5BLx7j2q7LYCypgRl". I did not ever delete directories with names resembling something that could remotely be called words of a human language. Also, I don't know if the names were alphanumeric,
although I'm certain they contained mixed case ANSI letters.

Do my files open with the intended program or app (which is the same, but some people like to make a distinction)?:

Yes. The various apps are working more or less in the expected behaviour, I just don't see the file icons any more. Search is slow or not responsive, sorting in folders is taking a painful amount of time or doesn't work.

What I don't know:

Does Windows depend on files in a folder with such cryptic a name? I thought it was impossible that a respectable company would develop a product that creates directories in "C:\Program Files" with names like "fcsQvbsZEjIuBrfJEsYAhmSzNiAhvq", but of course,
I could be wrong. Lower down the folder tree, I have seen things like that and it did not bother me, but in the light of recent events with e-rightsoft's SUPER, I panicked.

What I have done so far:

Cleaned the machine with various trusted programs: Windows Defender, CC, SS&D, Malwarebytes. WinDef Security Center says the system is clean and functioning normally. I have run the "winfilefolder.DiagCab", as well as the search DiagCab and maybe another
one, either from MS support (so basically, this site) or the windows internal trouble shooting center (sysinternals).

Symptoms (more may follow in future edits as I discover or think of them):

• File icons are blank pages with upper right flipped corner ("blanks") most of the time and inconsistently throughout directories, although the desktop always has correct file icons (cf. screenshot). Different cases could look as follow:
  
  • All files have blank icons.
  • Some file type has normal icons, all other have blank icons.
  • Some file type has blank icons, all other have normal icons.
  • Any number of file types have blank icons, other file types have normal icons.
  • The files in the section of the window visible at opening time have blank icons. Scrolling down, some or all other files have normal icons.
  • The files in the section of the window visible at opening time have normal icons. Scrolling down, some or all other files have blank icons.
  • It doesn't matter whether we are in list viewing mode or "big icon" (or whatever it's called in English) viewing mode.
• Search in folders is basically unusable.
• Hitting the windows start button (or its equivalent on the keyboard),
  • I can search for programs, hit enter and it opens them.
  • I can't search for files. They don't show up, but that's actually an old problem. Somehow, my files are not indexed correctly. Forget about searching for files inside my dropbox.
• The whole system is pretty slow now, but this might also be due to Spectre and Meltdown patches.

I think that's it for the moment. Please cf. the screenshot for further clarification.

What I'd like:

Meaningful file icons.